Don't expect an Avatar sequel any time soon

James Cameron may be back in cinemas with a re-release of Titanic (Look, an Iceberg! IN 3D!), but the big question on everybodys lips right now is, “What’s the dealio with an Avatar sequel, huh?”.

Okay, maybe with less slang, but along those lines. While Cameron is still stuck in a decompression chamber after his monumental dive to the bottom of the Marianas trench, his production partner Jon Landau recently sat down with Empire to talk about when exactly audiences can expect to see more giant smurfs in 3D.

Landau says that right now, there’s no delay on filming the sequels, due to the fact that an official release date has yet to be actually announced.

“We’re not naming dates, but I think 2014 will be a tough date for us to make”, Landau said to Empire. “It’s about getting it right.Movies make release dates; release dates don’t make movies”.

Judging by that, it looks we won’t see any 3D sequel before 2015, with 2016/17 being far more realistic in terms of a release date. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any pre-production work on the new films happening right now, as Landau explained.

We’ve started already. WETA are already working and we have our core team, (animation supervisor) Richie Baneham and (digital effects supervisor) Nolan Murtha, working with us. And we’re working on underwater performance-capture.

It’s going to be like the Floating Mountains in the first movie.It’s not going to be all underwater; it’s going to be a place we go to, leave and come back to.

Personally, I’m hoping that Stephen Lang finds a way to survive the spears that got stuck in the chest of his Colonel Miles Quaritch character. Blue cats may be cool, but genocidal army officers with badass running through their blood and a fleet of mechanised war-suits are way more impressive.

 

Last Updated: April 5, 2012